Nationally designated Important Cultural Property, The Iwase Residence

The largest 5-story house in Japan with a rafter roof, which took 8 years to build about 300 years ago. The residence is an important building inheriting the architectural style at that time, and is designated as a Nationally designated Important Cultural Property.

The Iwase family was an old family and played a role in sending niter, a material of gunpowder, to the Kaga clan, and the house was used for a government housing for officials during the Edo period, zelkova trees are used affluently to design the inside of the house, which should be recommended to see.
The house is 26.4 m wide, 12.7 m long, and 14.4 m high and was built using rope and a plant “neso” to bind without iron such as nail and metal materials. In a semi 5-story structure, the first and second floors were living rooms, the third and fifth floors were used as workplaces for sericulture. The floorboard upstairs has a watermark to get the heat smoothly from “Irori (a fireside on the first floor)”.

The tour is currently available to view the patriarch’s room, study, room for hiding warrior guards, as well as attic, and garden. It is going to be an interesting experience to talk with the current family head at the fireplace while feeling the warmth of the fire.

The house with a rafter roof called “Gassho-zukuri” is an architectural style traditionally inherited in deep- snow districts in Japan. The steep roof is characteristic and looks like joining one’s hands when giving prayers.